Stevens, Thomasson named prep athletes of week
Nov. 4—Webb City cross country runner Evan Stevens and Riverton volleyball player Jacy Thomasson have been named the Globe's prep athletes of the week for the week ending Oct. 29.
EVAN STEVENS
Stevens opened postseason play in style by winning the Class 4 District 2 meet at Nixa's Inman Intermediate School last Saturday. The junior won the race with a time of 15 minutes, 57 seconds as his Cardinals qualified for state as a team.
Webb City took third in the team standings with 122 points.
"Evan handled the pressure situation in a wise way," Cardinals coach Dustin Miller said. "I asked Evan (and Abi Street) to run pretty controlled and conservative to save as much energy as we could for this Friday. They both executed the plan flawlessly. I'm proud of the confidence he had to trust that process and execute the plan, insert his dominance when he did decide to move. It went great and it built his confidence going into the state championships."
Miller noted his squad has high expectations for the state meet in Columbia.
"Our expectation is to put ourselves in a position to win a state title," Miller said. "A lot of people say that, but on paper, there's three guys that have separated themselves from the field. Evan is one of those. We have big time goals and he's hit his workouts. He'll at least be in the conversation to win a state title. That will be exciting."
JACY THOMASSON
A decorated career at Riverton wrapped up last week. Thomasson amassed 54 kills and 38 digs to lead the Rams to their first ever Final Four appearance.
"As we were going into the postseason, what stood out about Jacy was how determined she was," Riverton coach Rebecca Lipasek said. "Going all the way back to her freshman year, we lost to Frontenac in the sub-state championship. That hit her pretty hard. Each year we took another step. She was very determined that her team would be in the Final Four this year."
The senior eclipsed the 2,000 kill plateau, finishing with 2,043 total. Thomasson also netted 1,001 career digs.
Thomasson was selected first-team All-CNC for the fourth straight season — the last three being unanimous.
"She is a complete player. She takes pride in her back row play and serve-receive, serving as well as her front row play," Lipasek said. "She's really elevated every part of her game. She has been a six-rotation player since she was a freshman. We score a lot of points while she is on the front row, so it's not an easy accomplishment to get 1,000 digs. For her to reach such milestones in the front row and back row, it's a tribute to how hard she's worked."
